Quainton Road Railway Station - Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad

Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad

The new company was unable to raise sufficient investment to begin construction of the Oxford extension, and had only been given a five year window by Parliament in which to build it. On 7 August 1888, less than two weeks before the authorisation was due to expire, the directors of the Oxford, Aylesbury and Metropolitan Junction Railway Company received Royal Assent for a revised and much cheaper version of the scheme. To be called the Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad (O&AT), the new scheme envisaged the extension being built to the same light specifications as the existing Tramway.

On 26 March 1889 the 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos died, aged 65. By this time the construction of the MR extension from London to Aylesbury was well underway, and on 1 July 1891 the MR formally absorbed the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway. Sir Harry Verney died on 12 February 1894, and on 31 March 1894 the MR took over the operation of services on the A&B from the GWR. On 1 July 1894 the MR extension to Aylesbury was completed, giving the MR a unified route from London to Verney Junction. The MR embarked on a programme of upgrading and rebuilding the stations along the newly acquired line.

Construction of the route from Brill to Oxford had not yet begun. Further Acts of Parliament were granted in 1892 and 1894 varying the proposed route slightly and allowing for its electrification, but no building work was carried out other than some preliminary surveying. On 1 April 1894, with the proposed extension to Oxford still intended, the O&AT exercised a clause of the 1888 Act and took over the Wotton Tramway. Work began on upgrading the line in preparation for the extension. The track on the line from Quainton Road to Brill was relaid with improved rails resting on standard transverse sleepers, replacing the original flimsy rails and longitudinal sleepers. At around this time two Manning Wardle locomotives were brought into use on the line.